Text:It Came upon the Midnight Clear
Author:Edmund Hamilton Sears
Tune:CAROL
Composer:Richard Storrs Willis

44. It Came upon the Midnight Clear

1 It came upon the midnight clear,
that glorious song of old,
from angels bending near the earth,
to touch their harps of gold,
"Peace on the earth, good will to all,
from heaven's all-gracious King!"
The world in solemn stillness lay
to hear the angels sing.

2 Still through the cloven skies they come
with peaceful wings unfurled;
and still their heavenly music floats
o'er all the weary world;
above its sad and lowly plains
they bend on hovering wing,
and ever o'er its Babel sounds
the blessed angels sing.

3 Yet with the woes of sin and strife
the world has suffered long;
beneath the angel strain have rolled
two thousand years of wrong;
and warring humankind hears not
the love song which they bring.
O hush the noise and cease your strife,
and hear the angels sing.

4 For, lo! the days are hastening on,
by prophets seen of old,
when with the ever-circling years
shall come the time foretold,
when peace shall over all the earth
its ancient splendours fling,
and the whole world send back the song
which now the angels sing.

Text Information
First Line: It came upon the midnight clear
Title: It Came upon the Midnight Clear
Author: Edmund Hamilton Sears (1849, alt.)
Meter: 8 6 8 6 D
Language: English
Publication Date: 1996
Topic: The Christian Year: Christmas; Angels; Christian Year: Christmas (16 more...)
Tune Information
Name: CAROL
Composer: Richard Storrs Willis (1580)
Meter: 8 6 8 6 D
Key: A Major



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